Pope Benedict urges American bishops to fight gay marriage

Pope Benedict XVI is urging American Catholics to take a stand against the “powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage,” a.k.a. the proponents of gay marriage, the AP reports. Acknowledging that his beliefs could be considered “countercultural,” the pope dismissed any alternative point of view: “Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage,” he said. The online reactions were predictable: lefties like @justinbarbour called Benedict’s warning “the epitome of hysteria,” while conservatives including @HumanLifeIntnl defended him from “uninformed and unfair attacks in the media.”